There's a pulsating heartbeat of an autobiographical nature within Palo Alto.

| Feb 6, 2024

I connected a lot more with Gia Coppola’s feature debut than I did with Boyhood. Palo Alto features a group of up-and-comers and captures the essence of youth without forcing it on the viewer.

| Jun 23, 2023

Based on a collection of interconnected short stories that James Franco published in 2010, director Gia Coppola's high-school drama presents two portraits in teen angst that owe more to the worldview of Bret Easton Ellis than John Hughes.

| Jan 22, 2022

It's a familiar story, one of sexual awakening, rebellion and teen heartbreak. But the extreme depths it plumbs... elevate it from being just another film...

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 16, 2021

Gia Coppola undertakes her maiden directorial voyage with a worthy narrative mash-up of three stories...A rare chance to see a top-flight ensemble deliver a Bay Area-sited OC.

| Jun 16, 2020

At times profound in its poetry of unfulfilling moments, the material is just as equally banal and not entirely memorable.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

A vain example of artless style that shoots narcissism of character as a reason to be.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 3, 2019

The film is tasteful in its imagistic flourishes, flirting with the surreal only at timely, pivotal moments in the characters' misadventures.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Mar 22, 2019

Disaffected, wealthy young people aren't new subjects for a film, but perhaps because [Gia] Coppola is not far from the age (and background) of her characters some of the details resonate.

| Mar 13, 2019

While not quite at the level of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused or Olivier Assayas' Cold Water, it comes closer than most contemporary American teen films dare.

| Nov 2, 2018

A meandering contemplation on teen angst but with nothing new or interesting to say about it.

| Original Score: 2/10 | Nov 2, 2018

I know plenty of filmmakers tend to make the same movie over and over again, but when you're making the movie of another famous relative, I would think you'd feel silly.

| Aug 22, 2018

A lackluster and slow-going film where its stories don't pan out well.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 14, 2018

Coppola's film is about what she knows; she's obviously more ambitious than her apathetic and self-obsessed characters, but she probably knows a few of them. Far from perfect, but a solid beginning.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2017

While all the young actors are committed to their characters (though none of them particularly stand out), this film will likely drown in its own nothingness as far more thought-provoking teenage fare continues to prevail.

| Original Score: C | Sep 2, 2017

Just because the kids can't make sense of their acting out doesn't mean the film shouldn't try to.

Full Review | Aug 15, 2017

The real headline is Coppola herself, though. I may not love Palo Alto but its substance and style are singular enough that I am keen to see what she does next.

| Aug 4, 2017

The reality is that for many, [these] four years are marked by a more moderate, complicated set of things, and not the relentless bleakness displayed in [the] film.

| Original Score: C | Jun 6, 2016

The drama is scaled to just the right size: kids get into trouble or inadvisable situations, but there are no major melodramatics. We see them in their natural habitat.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 24, 2014

James Franco's collection of autobiographical short stories is adapted into a remarkably evocative film by Gia Coppola, granddaughter of Francis.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2014